All posts tagged ‘Twin Peaks’

Written by Mark Frost (co-creator of Twin Peaks), The Paladin Prophecy introduces us to Will West and the set of rules that his dad insists he memorize. Injected cleverly into the story, these rules silently guide Will as he is thrust into a mystery featuring other-worldly mechanical creatures, dangerous men in dark glasses, and Will’s own exceptional mental and physical abilities.

From the beginning, the tone of the book reminded me of Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief. While the two books share a common fantasy thread, The Paladin Prophecy stretches into territory that will entertain the older teens and even adults who felt that Riordan’s books were too juvenile for them. The author builds page-turning intrigue, but manages to introduce some scientific topics and historical details without bogging the story down.

As Will comes to grips with the fact that he’s been relocated to a boarding school that’s home to many hyper-intelligent students — and a few that are less than savory — he finds the friendships that have been lacking in his life up to this point. The dialogue between friends is believable and at times laugh-out-loud funny. The technology available to the students will make a geek’s heart go pitter-pat: Holographic computing devices, avatars that can do your bidding from afar, and automatons of sorts bring an element of science fiction to the story.

After finishing the book, I found myself wishing for more, so it’s a good thing that it’s the first in a planned trilogy. Also? If I am ever assigned a guardian angel, I totally want one that wears a leather jacket and is named Dave.

In geek circles, author Mark Frost might be best known for creating the short-lived Twin Peaks television series with David Lynch, but his career is long and varied. He’s worked in film and television, and penned a number of adult novels, but his most recent project is a fantasy novel for young adults.

In The Paladin Prophecy, Will West grapples with the mysterious actions of his parents, his unique physical and mental abilities, and finds himself on the run from some unsavory characters. I’ve just begun reading the book, but I can tell already that the plot twists and turns will keep readers guessing as Will maneuvers his strange circumstances with the help of the his dad’s list of rules. [Rule #156: Always listen to your dad.] I asked Mark about The Paladin Prophecy, his writing process, and yes, Twin Peaks.

Kris Bordessa: The Paladin Prophecyis your first book for young adults. I’m a fan of young adult fiction so I’m thrilled, but what prompted you to pen a novel for teens?

Image: Random House

Mark Frost: This book just moved lock, stock and barrel into my mind and took over one day. I don’t think I consciously decided to write for the young adult audience, my subconscious decided for me. I had something I needed to process, and say, about my experience of growing up and this became the vehicle for it. When a story grabs the steering wheel like that I’ve learned the best thing to do is sit back, don’t hit the brakes and just try to keep the car heading down the road.

KB: Compared to your adult novels, how did your voice change to accommodate a younger audience? Or did it?

MF: I did experience a learning curve in terms of the prose style and tone, but the voice of the characters was there from the beginning and I think they have a lot to say to younger readers. It’s a turbulent and tumultuous time of life and I’ve done my best to shine some light on it. I was starved for role models during those years and I hope readers will find some amongst this group.

Omar Little, arguably one of the best TV characters of all time. Unless I find a time machine, I'll never be surprised by him again. Image: Guardian.co.uk

Wire Inspire, a funny Tumblr of inspiration posters about The Wire, has been making the rounds. Some of the entries are very funny (see: “Next time you finish off the box, you need to holler on it, yo.”) but it leaves me feeling wistful. You see, I recently finished watching the series on DVD. I missed it when it first aired, but then I read this quote from Henry Jenkins: ”The Wire may be the best television show inside the box,while Lost may be the best show outside the box.” Being a huge fan of Lost, that put me over the tipping point to make it through the brutal early episodes to really understand the gritty appeal of the show.

I’d say that my husband and I whipped through all five seasons of The Wire on DVD, but we had to take a break between seasons to emotionally recover, so real are the characters. I needed an extra long break after season 4, which continues to haunt me even now. After we watched the final episode, I found myself wishing I could watch the whole series again. For the first time. I want to watch it again not knowing what will come next.

Then I started thinking about all of the other shows I’d love to watch again for the first time.

Lost. This one goes without saying, doesn’t it? We need our collective memories wiped of the final season to be able to go back and watch the earlier episodes.

Battlestar Galactica. Like Lost, what came later in the series clouds the rewatching of earlier episodes. You don’t want to know who’s a Cylon!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I remember seeing the musical episode at a friend’s house before I’d ever seen another episode. To see that episode not knowing what’s coming would be worth building a time machine for.

Alias. Well, the first couple seasons anyway, before the show went off the Rambaldi rails and before Sydney’s friends found out she was a spy.

Heroes. Boy, talk about going off the rails. Wouldn’t you love to see season 1 with fresh eyes again, though?

Mad Men. Don Draper seems letchier when you watch the shows more than once, knowing the breadth of his affairs. The silver lining is that we’ll have new episodes of this one (eventually).

Strangers With Candy. Sure the bizarro Amy Sedaris comedy holds up to repeated viewings, but some of the gags are funniest when you don’t know they’re coming.

Six Feet Under. The Fishers are one of my favorite TV families of all time, but I haven’t brought myself to rewatch the series. I think it will be too emotionally draining to watch their drama unfold a second time.

Earlier this week I discussed some of the great movie scores that I love and listen to often; this time I’ll be looking at TV series scores. Many TV shows don’t have much in the way of scores, relying instead on a soundtrack of popular music, but the ones that do often have scores that could rival those of major films. Once again, short clips of some of my favourites are available where linked thanks to Amazon, iTunes and La La Land Records.

The X-Files OST Box Set

The X-Files has nearly always been my favourite TV show right back to being a young child, but up until recently there was almost no music available from the show barring the two movie scores and the theme song (which incidentally reached number two on the UK singles chart and stayed there for three weeks - testament to the show’s popularity at the time). That was until La La Land Records put out a four CD box set in May 2011, and fans crashed the label’s website approximately thirty seconds later in their excitement to buy copies. The X-Files had some of the most distinctive music of any TV show ever, progressing gradually over the nine seasons from the entirely synthesizer created early nineties sounds of season one to more orchestral pieces by the show’s demise in 2002. An orchestra was first brought in for the X-Files film in 1998 and it was only in season six that actual musicians were first used for the show instead of the synthesizers.

Unlike in many TV shows where a theme or leitmotif is created for a character or season then used repeatedly in various ways over multiple episodes, nearly all of the music for each episode is unique. The only character to get a “theme” is Scully, who got a hauntingly tragic piece named for her and used in several episodes throughout season eight, it is considered by both fans and show creator Chris Carter alike to be one of the greatest pieces series composer Mark Snow ever created. The famous six note classic show theme is rarely used as a motif outside the credits but the few times it is used, it is done so with great effect such as the warm string version at the very end of the series finale as we finally see Mulder and Scully together in one another’s arms. The theme music to The X-Files must be one of the most culturally significant ever created. Even today those six notes can be hummed to suggest that something weird or creepy is going on without ever having to say a word.

Most of the music from the show flits between the ominous and the tragic, and even the music from light-hearted moments maintains a dark theme; an example being “JJ’s Diner” from “comedy” episode “The Post-Modern Prometheus” which sounds like a macabre carousel. I once listened to the box set as I walked around the summer fair at my local primary school and I had to switch it off as I kept looking around to spot the terrifying thing about to happen somewhere. I certainly do not recommend you listen to this at night in a darkened house – proof of just how effective Snow’s music is, even without the visual accompaniment it was designed for. For me, this five-hour-long box set was easily the best $50 I have ever spent on music and I am already excited at the prospect of volume two.

My favourites: Starspeak (This is Not Happening), The Truth is Inside (The Truth), Scully’s Serenade (Various), Quest for Swath (Triangle), The End of The Crusade (Millennium), Closure (Jose Chung’s From Outer Space), Little Box of Sand (Emily), Hidden Truths/Big Happening (This is Not Happening), JJ’s Diner (The Post-Modern Prometheus)

Doctor Who Album Covers

Doctor Who is a show that has truly embraced its score with new albums being released for each season and also the specials, since the show regenerated in 2005. There has also been a special charity event where music from the first two seasons of “New Who” was performed and two concerts put on as part of the BBC Proms seasons in 2008 and again in 2010. The show has a distinctive sound courtesy of composer Murray Gold and orchestrator/conductor Ben Foster who have been at the show’s musical helm since the revival. It uses the BBC National Orchestra giving it a big sound scope, more like a film score than a TV one. One of the interesting things about the show is how the episodes vary from complete comedy to drama and tragedy. The Doctor being an immensely complex character, this gives the score a really varied feel.

The theme tune is one of the oldest TV themes ever created and it has not changed much since its original incarnation back in 1963 when it was one of the most unique sounding things on TV; in fact the theme to Doctor Who was one of the first themes ever to use electronic music. Although minor variations have been introduced over the years, occasionally to mild hostility from fans, the theme is still largely the same as it was almost fifty years ago.

If you want a unique music experience, you can look no further than the score albums from Twin Peaks. Famed for its surreal, unsettling style, Twin Peaks used music to help create the distinctive style of the show with unusual sounding instruments and a lot of odd, often discordant freestyle jazz. Finger clicking and lounge music featured heavily, along with simple piano music as used in “Laura Palmer’s Theme”, this was after all a show often heavily focused on tragedy and heartbreak. Just listening to the score can create a sense of the disturbing feelings you would often experience whilst watching the show, this is not music to listen to on a bad day. In the past few months, David Lynch has released many previously unreleased Twin Peaks tracks via his website, these are available to stream for free or you can pay to download permanent copies. A score was also released from the less successful film sequel/prequel Fire, Walk With Me and fans may be interested to note that Moby sampled “Laura Palmer’s Theme” in his song “Go“.

Another show that used utterly unique music in its score was Joss Whedon’s cult classic Firefly. Mixing together Western style acoustic guitars with bluegrass, orchestral string sections, traditional Chinese music and even hints of Bollywood, the music perfectly compliments the ‘Verse that the crew of the Serenity travel. The music seems to fit the culture of the outlying planets, it is folksy and traditional yet nothing that actually exists today; sounding as if it is the music created when the people of all Earth cultures are brought together to establish a new culture of their own, all bringing with them their own traditions and music heritage which combine into a new sound with echoes of them all. The soundtrack is therefore eclectic, yet manages to retain a distinctive and recognisable style throughout.

It is rather unusual for a documentary series to have a score as interesting as the show itself but this was certainly the case for Wonders of The Universe. Composed by Sheridan Tongue who has also created the score for Stephen Hawking’s Universe, this is dramatic and beautiful music created to compliment stunning visuals of the most spectacular things in our universe. It is often loud and bold, not the usual subtle background music from a TV score. My only complaint with this album is how short it is, with most of the sixteen tracks around two minutes, there is simply not enough of it.

There are a lot of areas of entertainment where my husband and I don’t always share the same taste, but we both tend to geek out over the same directors. Around the time of our wedding we were geeking out about a couple directors in particular, which influence our Wes Anderson wedding and David Lynch honeymoon.

Futura was the only font considered for our wedding invitations. Thank you, Wes Anderson (and to a lesser extent, Stanley Kubrick).

For the wedding, I didn’t go so far as to wear a Margot Tenenbaum stripped polo wedding dress (though if I had Gwenyth Paltrow’s figure and raccoon makeup, I might have considered it). No, but Wes Anderson was in the details. The font on all of our wedding invitations and correspondence? Futura, of course, with last names in all caps. The soundracks played a big role, too. I walked down the aisle to “Mothersbaugh’s Canon” from The Royal Tenenbaums, and we walked back out to “Concrete and Clay” from the Rushmore soundtrack.

For the honeymoon, you probably agree that no two words convey more romance than Twin Peaks. When my husband showed me the luxury lodge whose exterior was used as The Great Northern, the Salish Lodge was the only place on my honeymoon list (it’s heavenly, by the way). It didn’t hurt matters that it’s situated atop the waterfall in Twin Peak’s opening, and it’s a short drive from where you can get a slice of Agent Cooper’s cherry pie. “Diane, if you’re ever up here, you’ve gotta try this pie.”

One Tuesday morning, we went exploring down to the bottom of the waterfall. While we didn’t find any ears or men in yellow suits or dead girls wrapped in plastic, there, at the bottom of the waterfall we found… Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Seriously. They were there with a small film crew, and months later while watching Comedy Central we saw a promo with the pair and the waterfall in the background. Geek honeymoon, complete.

If you’re planning a wedding, I highly recommend taking things that you both love, and weaving the details into your big day. Then later, watching the movie or TV show or listening to soundtracks will always make you smile. Though if we had to do it all over again, maybe we’d do a Big Lebowski wedding. With green nail polish and everything. I’d rock the Viking horns.

Anyone else have any such romantic suggestions for weddings and honeymoons?